Mandatory FLEX

What is a Mandatory FLEX Day?

Title 5 (Section55726) mandates that faculty may participate in staff, student, and instructional development
activities to substitute normal classroom instruction or other normal faculty activities.
The rationale is that faculty should decide which activities are best suited to replace
this time. During a mandatory FLEX day, faculty have a selection of activities in
different time slots to select from.

The current language in the Faculty Contract concerning Mandatory FLEX Day is as follows:

Article 29B.a.:Mandatory Flex Day is a day set aside for faculty to participate in programmed activities
in person. Mandatory Flex Days are designated by the Academic Calendar Committee (see
Article 8C.1) and mutual agreement between the Campus Staff Development Committee
and the appropriate College President (see Articles 8C.1 and 29A.3), and are conducted
in lieu of instruction when scheduled at times that classes would normally meet.

Schedule of Mandatory FLEX Days

The Fall 2019 Mandatory FLEX Day is scheduled for Tuesday, October 22 from 8:00 AM
- 4:00 PM. All classes scheduled before 4:00 PM will be cancelled; however classes
beginning after 4:00 PM will still meet as scheduled.

The Spring 2020 Mandatory FLEX Day is scheduled for Tuesday, March 10 from 8:00 AM
- 4:00 PM. All classes scheduled before 4:00 PM will be cancelled; however, classes
beginning after 4:00 PM will still meet as scheduled.

Attendance Requirements

The required attendance for any Contract, Regular, or Temporary Leave Replacement
unit member who does not teach an evening course at 4:00 PM or later on a Mandatory
FLEX day is 6 hours. A non-working lunch or any other activity that is not required
of all unit members is in addition to this requirement (Article 29B.a).

If a Contract, Regular, or Temporary Leave Replacement unit member has a contract
obligation for Load on a Mandatory Flex Day that starts after the end of the Mandatory
Flex Day obligation, that unit member shall be excused from the entire Mandatory Flex
activity but shall meet his/her scheduled evening Load and office hour obligation.
If Load is split between day and night the unit member shall attend three (3) hours
of Mandatory Flex obligation as well as his/her scheduled evening Load and office
hour obligation (Article 29B.3).

If a Contract, Regular, or Temporary Leave Replacement unit member has an overload
assignment for extra pay on a scheduled Mandatory Flex Day and starting after the
end of the Mandatory Flex Day obligation, then that unit member shall not be excused
from part of the Mandatory Flex Day obligation (Article 29B.4).

When a unit member is on any type of Leave of Absence (Sabbatical, Workload Banking,
etc.), no professional activities are required. Therefore attendance at Mandatory
FLEX Day is not required for Faculty who are on a leave of absence at the time FLEX
Day occurs. (Article 10D.3c)

A Part-Time Faculty member teaching online has no responsibility for attending a mandatory
Flex day. Part-Time Faculty only have a responsibility to attend if they have a
class canceled due to the mandatory Flex day. Of course, Part-Time Faculty are always
welcome to attend and depending upon the topic of the workshop(s) they attend, it
is possible that they could be meeting their professional responsibility obligation,
e.g., attending training on Canvas or a working on program review.

If a Part-time unit member has a class cancelled during a scheduled Mandatory Flex
Day, then the Part-time unit member shall be obligated to attend the same portion
of the Mandatory Flex Day as the length of the cancelled class. (For example, if the
cancelled class was one (1) hour, then the Part-time unit member shall be required
to attend one (1) hour of the Mandatory Flex Day activities.). The activities that
you attend do not have to directly correspond to the particular times that you teach
at. For instance, if you teach a 11:00 AM - 11:50 AM class, you do not need to attend
an 11:00 AM session. (Article 29B.1).

A Part-Time unit member who does not have classes cancelled during a scheduled Mandatory
Flex Day is NOT required to attend any activities during this day. On the other hand,
if a Part-time unit member does not have a class cancelled during a scheduled Mandatory
Flex Day, but would like to still attend activities they may do so and apply these
activities to their Required Professional Responsibility Hours with prior approval
from their Dean. If they are not certain which activities may count toward their
Professional Responsibility Requirement, they should consult with their Dean ahead
of time. Part-time faculty who attend seminars for their professional responsibility
hours should still sign in on the sign-in sheet at the seminar they are in attendance
for. (Article 18.I.7g,18T).

Classified Professional Staff and Administrators should seek approval from their immediate
supervisor about participating in Mandatory Flex Day Activities.

Mandatory and Variable Flex Day attendance shall be accounted for by the appropriate
Administrator(s) (Article 29B.4).

Faculty Association Statement on FLEX

A detailed statement covering the Mandatory FLEX Obligation for Part-Time Faculty,
Variable FLEX Obligation for Part-Time Faculty, Mandatory FLEX Day Obligation for
Full-Time Faculty Teaching Evening Classes for Load, and Professional Development
vs. Professional Responsibility can be found here:

Presenter Information

Proposals for the Fall 2019 FLEX Day are now being accepted. The deadline to submit
a proposal for consideration in the official program is Monday, September 16 by 5:00 PM. Mandatory FLEX Activity Proposal Form

You will receive confirmation once your event has been approved. You may request a
specific time slot or time allocation, but these requests cannot be guaranteed and
are subject to availability.

Please email a copy of your presentation materials (including, but not limited to,
PowerPoint presentations, PDF or Word documents, website links) to the coordinator.
Indicate in the email whether or not you would like the coordinator to post the materials
prior to or after Mandatory FLEX Day.

Presenters will also receive a packet containing sign-in sheets and individual activity
surveys. On your sign-in sheet, please put the session title and time period of your talk.
Please also reserve a few minutes of your presentation to hand these surveys out.
Collect the surveys at the end of your session and return them, along with your Sign
In sheets, to the President's Office. Please submit your complete packet by no later than 5:00 PM on FLEX Day.

There are three options available for presenters earning their required time or financial
compensation at Mandatory FLEX Day:

Unit members may earn double FLEX credit during their presentation timeslot, with
credit being earned for being in attendance at their event and then credit being earned
for their preparation. For example, a presenter speaking for two hours would earn
a total of four hours FLEX credit for the day and only be required to attend an additional
two hours of events.

The unit member may apply the preparation portion of their presentation toward their
annual Variable FLEX obligation; however, they will not be eligible to use it toward
their Mandatory FLEX requirement and will only receive attendance credit for their
presentation. For example, a presenter speaking for two hours in this situation would
receive two hours of Mandatory FLEX credit and two hours of Variable FLEX credit.
If you wish to exercise this option, please do NOT write "presenter" on the sign-in
sheet next to your name and document your Variable FLEX credit.

Financial compensation is not available for presenters.

Discipline Meetings

You may hold a discipline meeting at any time (except for the keynote) for a maximum
of two hours on FLEX day. Please do not use the following buildings for your meeting:
2200, 2400 (except conference rooms), 2500. Faculty are strongly discouraged from utilizing FLEX day time to hold discipline meetings.
If you wish, however, to have your discipline meeting included in the program you
will need to complete a Mandatory FLEX Day Activity Request form and submit it to the coordinator prior to the deadline. Please explain the rationale
for why you are holding the meeting on FLEX day. You will need to print out attendance sheets and submit them to the Office of the President by 5:00 PM on FLEX Day. These meetings
will not be included in the FLEX day schedule.